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Project Apollo
Back to 'House Serpens'. Project Apollo was a secret and illegal operation orchestrated by High Executor Takumi Watanabe Bjornberg, as a means of creating the ultimate psychic servant. Through currently unknown means the project leads were able to acquire the genetic material from a number of dead and then contemporary psychics who were notable for raw psychic talent or mastery of their powers. The project involved cloning, genetic splicing, technologies which accelerated ageing, the use of chemical and technological agents to ensure docile subjects, and the artificial birth and deaths of over 800 human test subjects. Project Apollo was housed in an extensive secret facility on Demnoph, chosen as it would be easy to hide a high tech facility among the ACRE’s urban sprawl, while being close enough to Hroa that genetic samples would not be exposed to drive space prior to experimentation. Stage 1 Project Apollo was initiated in 3076, with the gestation of its first batch of vat-grown subjects, initially focusing on creating and experimenting with direct clones of the ‘donor’ individuals, and exposure to metadimensional energy at various states of development in an attempt to pin down when and to what degree individuals develop MES. This stage proved fruitless, but did provide some evidence suggesting genetic predisposition to the condition as the vast majority of subjects developed MES prior to their termination. Stage 2 The second stage of the project focused on the splicing of genetic material across multiple ‘donors’ in order to isolate which genes were more likely to contribute to the development of MES. This phase of the project lasted over 15 years, and saw the birth and termination of at least 200 individuals. Eventually, the staff of Project Apollo discovered what they believed to be a series of ‘psychic genes’ that could be activated by exposure to prolonged background energies from drive space, or direct metapsionic manipulation. Stage 3 Stage three consisted of the gestation of several smaller ‘batches’ of subjects who would be allowed to develop naturally while under the training and observation of Project Apollo staff. The subjects would have their free-will suppressed by a mix of psionic conditioning, cybernetic augmentation, and chemical compounds while being groomed to test optimal and theoretical psychic training programs. As stage three reached its conclusion it was decided that while the mental suppression of subjects lent itself to ease of operations, it directly hampered and stunted psionic growth and potential. Stage 4 Stage four began immediately after the termination of all stage 3 subjects. The plan for this stage of the project was largely the same as stage 3, however this ‘batch’ of subjects was much smaller, planned to be comprised of three batches of 40 subjects staggered by 5 years each, who were free of chemical and cybernetic augmentation. The bulk of subjects developed symptoms of MES by ten, and exhibited accelerated mastery of their abilities. However, flaws in evaluating subjects lead to batch 2 subjects holding back on their ability to manipulate reward cycles, leading to the staff’s underestimation of their abilities. In June of 3117, while the staff terminated the first batch of stage 4 subjects around the 15th anniversary of their creation, a number of batch 2 subjects were able to detect the event, leading to a small scale riot. The riot lead to the early termination of all second batch subjects, and a breach of project secrecy. Postmortem After the execution of Stage 4 batch 1 and 2, staff of Project Apollo attempted to salvage their batch 3 subjects and the bulk of their facility while moving to a secure location. However, non Project Apollo agents of house Serpens were able to see through the cover story fed to local authorities, and quickly zeroed in on the facility before it could be fully scuttled. During the raid on Project Apollo facilities the much of the project’s records were destroyed by stray fire, including the vast majority of research findings and exact details on the project’s operational procedures. In addition, 12 of the 19 surviving test subjects were killed by collapsing potions of the facility and Project staff attempting to scuttle project assets. The surviving 7 subjects had their memories erased by the recovery team, though one was lost in a transportation accident while relocating the subjects to Hroa. The remaining 6 subjects were implanted with artificial memories, and quietly adopted among a number of noble houses. These subjects have all proved to be extremely potent psychics, talking to several disciplines with shocking ease. Category:House Serpens Category:History Category:Demnoph Category:Hroa